Many of activities on Norfolk Island have been reduced. Perhaps as a result of Covid amongst its locals or perhaps in response to a generalised downturn prompted by the smaller, progressively-aging tourist numbers who come for a visit. As we drive through the town, there are shops closing down or already closed. Other stores stock a variety of items perhaps to stretch across to the middle in supply of goods once stocked by their neighbours. Prices are higher than we’ve ever experienced before (having visited between us three other times). This is perhaps prompted by the Australian Government taxing the population in recompense for supplying infrastructure and other important services, such as health and education and the facilities required by tourism such as public toilets and signage and safe paths to lookouts etc. We find two very precious ripening tomatoes and pay $5.00 for the two of them. Many prices have GST added to them clearly such as $16.60. The island was known for duty free prices on alcohol, but this has been turned around now with tax added. One thing which has remained the same is that there are two shoe shops which continue to stock shoes which have duty free prices. The Supermarket has empty shelves and any fresh foods are in extremely limited supply, if not completely sold out.
But another, unchanging aspect of our visit is the gentle pace in evidence in this relaxing island-getaway where visitors can detox from their busy lives and be reminded of a different era when life was less complicated, the world wasn’t quite so hectic and there was time to focus on the important things. We engaged in a Convict Settlement tour and also the free Orientation tour available to those booking in for activities offered by Pinetree Tours. Here you can see the touch of big brother Queensland in the facilities available - newer buses to transport guests around, safer WH&S procedures and efficient booking systems which can be carried out online or in person.
We tour Heritage-listed Kingston to look through the relics of the long past convict history. We didn’t do this on our last visit, opting for roaming at will. The Old town is reminiscent of a Cornish Fishing village looking out to an oft’ stormy seas from under the towering embrace of Flagstaff Hill and the rugged, eroding cliffs that encircle Norfolk Island. Kingston is Norfolk Island’s capital, the second-oldest modern colonial capital in the South Pacific. Only Sydney is older. Kingston falls naturally into several quarters that reflect its growth over the past 233 years. The oldest of these is the Old town dating from the late 18th century. In comparison, the New town along Quality Row with its elegant Georgian buildings and knife-edge streets is an 1830’s newcomer. The Old Town sits in the south-western corner of Kingston, anchored in place by the Pier that provides the very reason for its birth and location. It was here, between the pier and the cliffs, in an area now edged by a rocky sea wall, that landfall was first made on 6th March 1788 by a party of soldiers, settlers and convicts under Lieutenant Governor Philip Gidley King.
But another, unchanging aspect of our visit is the gentle pace in evidence in this relaxing island-getaway where visitors can detox from their busy lives and be reminded of a different era when life was less complicated, the world wasn’t quite so hectic and there was time to focus on the important things. We engaged in a Convict Settlement tour and also the free Orientation tour available to those booking in for activities offered by Pinetree Tours. Here you can see the touch of big brother Queensland in the facilities available - newer buses to transport guests around, safer WH&S procedures and efficient booking systems which can be carried out online or in person.
We tour Heritage-listed Kingston to look through the relics of the long past convict history. We didn’t do this on our last visit, opting for roaming at will. The Old town is reminiscent of a Cornish Fishing village looking out to an oft’ stormy seas from under the towering embrace of Flagstaff Hill and the rugged, eroding cliffs that encircle Norfolk Island. Kingston is Norfolk Island’s capital, the second-oldest modern colonial capital in the South Pacific. Only Sydney is older. Kingston falls naturally into several quarters that reflect its growth over the past 233 years. The oldest of these is the Old town dating from the late 18th century. In comparison, the New town along Quality Row with its elegant Georgian buildings and knife-edge streets is an 1830’s newcomer. The Old Town sits in the south-western corner of Kingston, anchored in place by the Pier that provides the very reason for its birth and location. It was here, between the pier and the cliffs, in an area now edged by a rocky sea wall, that landfall was first made on 6th March 1788 by a party of soldiers, settlers and convicts under Lieutenant Governor Philip Gidley King.
Their little ship HMS Supply, a mere 21 metres long and six metres wide, carried 23 passengers from Sydney Cove. It had arrived in Botany Bay with the First Fleet in late January 1788 with 50 people and supplies. Governor Arthur Phillip had strict orders to occupy Norfolk Island, and only a few weeks later on 14th February, the Supply sailed for Norfolk Island. Two weeks later, after finding and naming Lord Howe island en route, Norfolk was sighted. The ship spent another week sailing around the island looking for a safe landing place. Eventually, King and his party were put ashore on a sandy beach at the end for a passage through the reef, and the British colonisation of the Island began.
As the town developed between 1788 and 1814, its growth occurred in two main phases. The town took shape around the landing place and along the beach between 1788 and 1796 under King including the building of the hospital; and hospital garden in 1794. A second wave of building between 1800 and 1834 under Lieutenant Governor Joseph Foreaux produced a stout jail near the landing place and the present Government House as well as a number of new roads, bridges and sea walls. Foreaux was succeeded by Captain John Piper just as orders from London to close down the Island began to be implemented. Piper spent six years on the Island as argument over whether to maintain or close the settlement flew back and forth between London and Sydney. Piper was the last Lieutenant Governor on Norfolk Island. He was replaced by Lieutenant Tankerville Crane of Governor Macquarie’s own 73rd Regiment. During Crane’s regime the steady deportation of settlers and their property to either Van Diemen’s Land or New South Wales occurred invoking the decline of the town and the abandonment of the Island’s country districts.
During the last summer of 1814 a gang of thirty convicts and their guards rounded up the last of the cattle, sheep and hogs, and killed and salted them for the deported settlers. The last two remaining settlers, Thomas Ransom and William Hutchinson, had the melancholy duty of setting fire to all the buildings. They both arrived on the island as convicts, served their time and become leading citizens of the community. As they sailed away on the Kangaroo on 28th February 1814 to Sydney Cove, they left behind a scorched and silent town, populated only by the dogs that had been left behind to devour any remaining stock. This apocalyptic destruction is said to have been necessary to deny the Island to the French.
On history’s stage this could have been a final curtain call. However, it turned out to be simply an intermission. On the 6th June 1825 the cutter Mermaid and the brig Brutus anchored off Cascade Bay. Captain Richard Turton disembarked 50 soldiers, 57 convicts, six women and six children. Buildings were re-roofed, repaired, repurposed and some renamed. Over the proceeding years some were demolished.
Kingston’s Old town, in its layout and surviving structures is the oldest 18th century townscape in Australasia where the discerning visitor can still catch a glimpse of the 1790’s-1800’s. The distant past is not so hidden in this most antique of our capitals. The Old Town survives, waiting to be revealed again, and that alone makes it a living treasure of National and world significance.
Picture this, you’re in an enchanting wooded Norfolk forest, under the spectacular night stars, meandering along a path, where thousands of fairy lights arch through the trees. Towering Norfolk Pines are lit up, and you feel so tiny and small, but it feels like something out of a fairy tale.
What an experience this is. The creator, Archie Biggs is descendant from the early settlers on Norfolk and during his lifetime, which came to a peaceful close about three years ago, he was a poet. Wonderland by Night celebrates the stories of life gone by on Norfolk Island and how the past has shaped our identity. Set in 10 acres of magical Norfolk Pines, lit up like an enchanted forest, visitors can meander along (or ride in the ‘moon buggy’) through a gentle winding path with a descendant of the Bounty Mutineers, as they recite poems and light up the dioramas. At the end of the evening, we enjoy a cuppa in Archie’s bush shed. His poetry is down to earth and told with a tongue in cheek humour which is immediately recognisable to Australians. A collection of old time stories which are often humorous and rather poignant tales of family life-written. We enjoy having the unique opportunity to hear the Norfok’n language spoken and translated in one of the stories and to understand a little of the Island humour. Diverse topics like cows, cattle-grids, tour bus driving, the contents of old sheds and the ‘Norfolk wave’ are all covered and a bit of everything else thrown in too. We had to learn the Norfolk wave pretty quickly on our last visit, when we wondered why drivers who passed us were waving at us for. It is part of the friendly custom of the place that you cannot pass someone without waving to them. Archie writes about his old tin shed and everything in it and some amusing reminiscences of the out back wash house with its Sunlight soap in a wire basket and wooden dolly pegs and with ‘Reckitt’s Blue on the saucer to make things white and good for bee stings too.’ In short, he captures many familiar memories of days gone by.
As the town developed between 1788 and 1814, its growth occurred in two main phases. The town took shape around the landing place and along the beach between 1788 and 1796 under King including the building of the hospital; and hospital garden in 1794. A second wave of building between 1800 and 1834 under Lieutenant Governor Joseph Foreaux produced a stout jail near the landing place and the present Government House as well as a number of new roads, bridges and sea walls. Foreaux was succeeded by Captain John Piper just as orders from London to close down the Island began to be implemented. Piper spent six years on the Island as argument over whether to maintain or close the settlement flew back and forth between London and Sydney. Piper was the last Lieutenant Governor on Norfolk Island. He was replaced by Lieutenant Tankerville Crane of Governor Macquarie’s own 73rd Regiment. During Crane’s regime the steady deportation of settlers and their property to either Van Diemen’s Land or New South Wales occurred invoking the decline of the town and the abandonment of the Island’s country districts.
During the last summer of 1814 a gang of thirty convicts and their guards rounded up the last of the cattle, sheep and hogs, and killed and salted them for the deported settlers. The last two remaining settlers, Thomas Ransom and William Hutchinson, had the melancholy duty of setting fire to all the buildings. They both arrived on the island as convicts, served their time and become leading citizens of the community. As they sailed away on the Kangaroo on 28th February 1814 to Sydney Cove, they left behind a scorched and silent town, populated only by the dogs that had been left behind to devour any remaining stock. This apocalyptic destruction is said to have been necessary to deny the Island to the French.
On history’s stage this could have been a final curtain call. However, it turned out to be simply an intermission. On the 6th June 1825 the cutter Mermaid and the brig Brutus anchored off Cascade Bay. Captain Richard Turton disembarked 50 soldiers, 57 convicts, six women and six children. Buildings were re-roofed, repaired, repurposed and some renamed. Over the proceeding years some were demolished.
Kingston’s Old town, in its layout and surviving structures is the oldest 18th century townscape in Australasia where the discerning visitor can still catch a glimpse of the 1790’s-1800’s. The distant past is not so hidden in this most antique of our capitals. The Old Town survives, waiting to be revealed again, and that alone makes it a living treasure of National and world significance.
Picture this, you’re in an enchanting wooded Norfolk forest, under the spectacular night stars, meandering along a path, where thousands of fairy lights arch through the trees. Towering Norfolk Pines are lit up, and you feel so tiny and small, but it feels like something out of a fairy tale.
What an experience this is. The creator, Archie Biggs is descendant from the early settlers on Norfolk and during his lifetime, which came to a peaceful close about three years ago, he was a poet. Wonderland by Night celebrates the stories of life gone by on Norfolk Island and how the past has shaped our identity. Set in 10 acres of magical Norfolk Pines, lit up like an enchanted forest, visitors can meander along (or ride in the ‘moon buggy’) through a gentle winding path with a descendant of the Bounty Mutineers, as they recite poems and light up the dioramas. At the end of the evening, we enjoy a cuppa in Archie’s bush shed. His poetry is down to earth and told with a tongue in cheek humour which is immediately recognisable to Australians. A collection of old time stories which are often humorous and rather poignant tales of family life-written. We enjoy having the unique opportunity to hear the Norfok’n language spoken and translated in one of the stories and to understand a little of the Island humour. Diverse topics like cows, cattle-grids, tour bus driving, the contents of old sheds and the ‘Norfolk wave’ are all covered and a bit of everything else thrown in too. We had to learn the Norfolk wave pretty quickly on our last visit, when we wondered why drivers who passed us were waving at us for. It is part of the friendly custom of the place that you cannot pass someone without waving to them. Archie writes about his old tin shed and everything in it and some amusing reminiscences of the out back wash house with its Sunlight soap in a wire basket and wooden dolly pegs and with ‘Reckitt’s Blue on the saucer to make things white and good for bee stings too.’ In short, he captures many familiar memories of days gone by.
Dinner one of evenings is enjoyed at the “Bounty Bar and Grill” where a friendly moggy sidles in and winds herself around our legs in the hope of a scratch behind the ears. This location is in an old house on the island - possibly an early settlers abode and we sit in a bay window at an oval dinner table as if we were born to this type of luxury.
Today, we visited “the Cyclorama”. This has been open to the public for twenty years and features paintings on a circular wall painted in the 3D format which chart the mutiny on the Bounty and fate of the Pitcairn Islanders. The features have been amazingly well rendered and there are fake rocks and other foreground features which give the paintings further reality. These were created by two artists who are residents of the island. It is said that the figures in the paintings each carry the features of an islander living in the current community. Unfortunately there is no photography allowed.
Tonight we will be participating in “the Progressive Dinner”, an event which we enjoyed last time we visited. Here you are taken by bus to the homes of three Islanders where you enjoy the three courses of the meal. Along with this delicious fare is the story rendered at each location of how the islander’s home was built and the descendent history of each family from the eight mutineers. We enjoyed it last time, because a visit to a foreign place isn’t complete without getting a glimpse into what it means to live here in the shoes of those who do. Stephen and I are enjoying deep, restful sleeping and put it down to the silence and regular sea breezes which wash over one - definitely a sleepy but wholesome place.
Today, we visited “the Cyclorama”. This has been open to the public for twenty years and features paintings on a circular wall painted in the 3D format which chart the mutiny on the Bounty and fate of the Pitcairn Islanders. The features have been amazingly well rendered and there are fake rocks and other foreground features which give the paintings further reality. These were created by two artists who are residents of the island. It is said that the figures in the paintings each carry the features of an islander living in the current community. Unfortunately there is no photography allowed.
Tonight we will be participating in “the Progressive Dinner”, an event which we enjoyed last time we visited. Here you are taken by bus to the homes of three Islanders where you enjoy the three courses of the meal. Along with this delicious fare is the story rendered at each location of how the islander’s home was built and the descendent history of each family from the eight mutineers. We enjoyed it last time, because a visit to a foreign place isn’t complete without getting a glimpse into what it means to live here in the shoes of those who do. Stephen and I are enjoying deep, restful sleeping and put it down to the silence and regular sea breezes which wash over one - definitely a sleepy but wholesome place.